Open Thread: What Does Easter Mean to You?

With Easter Sunday just one day away, many of us are planning various ways to celebrate this glorious day.  However, do we REALLY know what we are rejoicing and what significance this Holy day holds?  Perhaps it is the Easter Egg Hunt or trip to see the Easter bunny that gets your family excited.  Maybe it is one of the few times you visit the church each year because you feel this day is more important than any other Sunday.  Perhaps you’re celebrating the resurrection of Jesus and honoring God for the ultimate sacrifice that He made for the human race.  With no right or wrong answer, feel free to share what Easter means to you.  I’ll start…

Before Easter Sunday, there was Good Friday.  Good Friday marks the day of pure sacrifice, eternal forgiveness and divine love.  On Good Friday, God paid the ultimate price for EACH and EVERY one of us by sacrificing His only son, Jesus, to be the payment of our sins… back then, today and forever.  I don’t have children yet, but if I did, I would struggle so intensely about sacrificing my ONLY child so that the rest of the world could have a future.  Jesus didn’t have to die for us… He was Jesus! He could have done many miraculous acts to avoid being hung on the cross. Jesus chose to die for us. The public humiliation, pain and heartache He endured was a choice that He made for us. He bled for us, He cried for us, He was ridiculed and mocked for us and eventually, He died for us.  To me, Good Friday marks the ultimate forgiveness for our sins and defines the love that God has for us. 

Easter Sunday is God’s reminder of His promise to us, His promise that “Never will I [God] leave you [us]; never will I [God] forsake you [us].” Hebrews 13:5. Even after everything that Jesus stood for seemed to come to an end, He rose from the dead. This tells me that even in our darkest times when all hope seems lost, the faithful and good will prevail.  If God can raise Jesus from the dead, imagine the miracles He can perform for us!  All we have to do is believe.

Image credit: Blue Lotus / Flickr

What Does Love Look Like?

How far would you go to show love to someone?  When was the last time you got your hands dirty to serve another?

This is another video from our friend Tony the street evangelist.  His passion is to take God’s love to strangers on the street here in LA.  We are so blessed that he’s decided to share some of his raw street ministry videos with our readers here at WitnessLA.org.

Recently, Tony was on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica when he met a disabled man named Mike in a wheelchair.  What happened next is one of the most radical acts of God’s love we’ve ever seen captured on tape.

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Dancing with My Father on Easter

As Good Friday and Easter approaches, one of our friends invites us to “dance with our Father” in Heaven, and think about much our Father has sacrificed to save us from our sins.

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Before you begin to read my testimony, I encourage you to listen to this cover of “Dance with My Father” on repeat, and not only listen to the lyrics, but also feel the notes in your heart. It’s a nice pairing with this testimony.

In light of Good Friday and as Easter draws near, I think about what Jesus did for us on the cross. I’m getting the chills thinking about how Jesus was rejected (which really doesn’t even describe how people responded to Him), but He still gave His life for those who loved and hated Him. Sometimes, we as humans think life is unfair because things don’t happen the way we want them to, or we take control of situations and everything falls apart. I cringe when people talk about unfairness, because the truth is, it wasn’t fair for Jesus to die on the cross for us and pay the price for our sins. How are we deserving of that? Can you even begin to fathom what Jesus went through for us?

A few months ago, I watched Passion of the Christ for the first time, a movie that came out in 2004. You might be thinking why I waited so long to watch it. I’m going to be completely honest with you – I was scared. Scared of what I would see, and scared of how I would feel. When it comes to films or stories, I tend to empathize with the protagonists of the story and my heart softens.  For the Passion, I needed to build up the courage. Even before I started the film, I prayed for God to give me strength and not be broken down by what I would see. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how much more agonizing and monstrous it was during Jesus’ actual crucifixion over 2000 years ago, if this was only a Hollywood depiction of it.

This is the part of the movie where my heart just broke - when Jesus fell as He was carrying His cross and his mother came running to Him. Can you imagine what Jesus felt at that time when he was being whipped and intensely ridiculed? Can you imagine what you would feel if you saw your own child bleeding and tortured like Mary did? There was a guard who inquired about the woman who came running to Jesus when He fell. A second guard responded to the first and said that the woman was the Galilean’s mother. Stop there! Do you remember the reaction of the first guard who asked the question? His heart seemed to break like mine. Did yours?

Sometimes, when I complain, I feel like a child who knows no better. But I know that even if I’m acting like a child or talking like a child, Jesus will still love me exactly the way I am. 1 John 4:19 says, We love Him because He first loved us. What makes me so extremely ashamed to be a sinner is just that. How can someone love me so much even in times when all I feel is hate and anything else other than love?

I realize that’s what the love of the Father is – unconditional love. There’s a part in the song “Dance with My Father” that says:

If I could get another chance

Another walk, another dance with Him

I’d play a song that would never never end

How I’d love, love, love to dance with my Father again

The reality is that He gives us endless chances to walk and dance with Him and the song that never ends is playing now. Our walks and dances with Him here on earth are in the form of loving both the lovables AND unlovables in our lives, just as He did. It is so difficult to always be filled with love especially when we feel like we’ve been wronged or betrayed, but Jesus still loves us every time we wrong or betray Him and that alone should remove our bitterness for others. How will you dance with your Father this Easter?

Announcing: Our First Ever Video Blog And New Voice Janice!

WitnessLA.org is proud and honored to announce our first ever Video Blog from our newest voice Janice.  She shares a moving story of how the way her grandmother treated her grandfather during his recent illness was a perfect illustration of God’s love.

Feedback?  Interested in Video Blogging for us at WitnessLA.org, or sharing a Video Testimony?  Contact Janice through her website at: http://www.themediamaid.com/

Stay tuned for more Video Blogs from Janice and others in 2011!